Clear Lake

Posted by Karen on 13-May-2010

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Pauline and I are one our way up to Redwood Country for a few days under the tall trees. We took our lunch break at the Lucerne Harbor on Clear Lake and enjoyed watching the ducks paddle around for awhile before continuing on up down the road.

Solano County and Jepson Prairie Preserve

Posted by Karen on 18-Apr-2010

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On this beautiful warm Spring day, Lori and I headed to Solano County, south of Dixon, to visit the Jepson Prairie Preserve and to do a little bit of geocaching. This corner of the county is farm land and it has been painted yellow with mustard blooms. Hunting geocaches takes us down dirt roads and on one of them we found that Dino the purple Dinosaur met an untimely end… yikes! At the preserve, we walked the 1/2 mile nature trail, seeing a few wildflowers, but not many. The recent rains we had the week before had not allowed enough time for this wetland area to start drying, which is when the flowers spring up. It was still a nice walk, I learned about mima mounds and that Olcott Lake is alkaline and called a playa pool. A patch of California poppies on the roadside as we left the preserve helped complete the flower-fix for the day.

Rancho Seco

Posted by Karen on 13-Mar-2010

(Click photo for all 19 photos)

This afternoon, I took a drive out to Rancho Seco to visit with Tersha and Vic and to see their new trailer in their favorite camping spot. This was my first visit to the decommissioned nuclear power plant and the recreation area they’ve converted it to. While the towers still stand, and probably will for many more years, they’ve not been active since we voted the plant closed in 1989. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) operates a large solar farm and a natural gas plant out there now. The park area is very nice, there is a large lake where people were wind surfing and enjoying a fishing contest. There is also a trail through a wetland area that should be full of flowers here soon, but not yet.

Lake Natoma Stroll

Posted by Karen on 05-Feb-2010

(Click photo for all 22 photos)

Tanella and I both had the day off from the tax office, so we took a stroll along Lake Natoma and enjoyed the sunshine that was shining for the day.  We strolled past the Sac State Aquatic Center, past the geese, ducks and birds on the shore and then down bike path and over the bridge before heading back.

GPS Stats: • Odometer: 3.52 miles • Total Time: 1:31 • Moving Time: 1:14 • Moving Average: 2.9 mph • Overall Average: 2.3 mph